Naval transport

**Martok** · 01-24-2006, 07:28

One thing that bugged me about Rome was how a single ship could carry an entire army across a body of water. Yes, it's an improvement over Medieval's armies being able to magically "jump" to another province in a single turn, but it still wasn't anything approaching realistic. I think that in Medieval 2, the size of the army you can dispatch for an amphibious assault should be directly dependent on how many ships and what kind of ships make up the invasion fleet. For example, 10 wargalleys ought to be able to transport *way* more troops than 20 dromons/barques. What are your thoughts on this?

**Ignoramus** · 01-24-2006, 07:52

I agree, also, I think the Danes should be allowed to have a special type of ship, i.e. Longboats, which are quite weak and vulnerable, but can travel down major rivers.

**NodachiSam** · 01-24-2006, 08:01

Isn't it that they could travel from Rome to Egypt in 30 days or something? Maybe it is a bit of a stretch but Egypt to Finland could be done in a year, no?

**Weebeast** · 01-24-2006, 08:17

Does this mean we're able/supposed to merge units into fleets? Hehe, I wonder if they can drown along with the sinkin ships.

**sapi** · 01-24-2006, 08:29

Originally Posted by Weebeast

Does this mean we're able/supposed to merge units into fleets? Hehe, I wonder if they can drown along with the sinkin ships.

Troops should be lost in a sea battle - if 10% of the ships die, 10% of the troops should likewise (disregarding different ship sizes in this example)

**Kraxis** · 01-24-2006, 13:58

Well, I think that like MTW the ships we build in RTW are only the military escort. We already have lots of transports (look at all those small merchants sailing back and forth). The various -remes were lousy as military transports unless you go into the rediculous sizes, and that is just not practical.
Also, why on earth would you cram horses, siegeequipment and whatnot onto military ships that might in fact be forced to fight a battle? Besides since the troops onboard never added to the fighting ability of the fleet, we have to assume they were no onboard the military vessels. Thus they were sailing with other ships.

**Oaty** · 01-24-2006, 23:20

For the A.I. sake it is needed. I hate it when I see a little (sometimes battered) Bireme holding a full stack army or close to it. I chase it away but the dumb A.I. returns to the same waters for me to sink it instead of finding the closest, preferably friendly territory to land thier army quickly. Possibly 1 ship to 3 units would be a good ratio.

Anyways after a naval defeat with troops, the game should automatically retreat the ship to friendly territory and disembark the troops there.

When I'm transporting a full stack you can rest assure, I have very strong navy that is very unlikely to get defeated and if it does, theres at least enough left for me to disembark.

**Odin** · 01-25-2006, 02:28

Originally Posted by oaty

For the A.I. sake it is needed. I hate it when I see a little (sometimes battered) Bireme holding a full stack army or close to it. I chase it away but the dumb A.I. returns to the same waters for me to sink it instead of finding the closest, preferably friendly territory to land thier army quickly. Possibly 1 ship to 3 units would be a good ratio.

Anyways after a naval defeat with troops, the game should automatically retreat the ship to friendly territory and disembark the troops there.

When I'm transporting a full stack you can rest assure, I have very strong navy that is very unlikely to get defeated and if it does, theres at least enough left for me to disembark.

Having not played RTW but plenty of other wargames I can say that no wiser words have been said. The AI and how it transports its fleets is the issue, as the human your going to make sure you have the resources to pull it off.

The MTW system was pretty silly, a string of ships could get you anywhere, but, to its merit the AI could effectively use the same system, at the same risk/cost.

Might be a game balance issue for sea transport.

**King Henry V** · 01-28-2006, 18:15

However, that was somewhat more realistic than talking five years to go from Alexandria to Massilia.

**sapi** · 01-29-2006, 08:29

Originally Posted by King Henry V

However, that was somewhat more realistic than talking five years to go from Alexandria to Massilia.

Yes - maybe the ai would use ships more effectively if they could get to more places in 1 turn - especially as there is imporved sea transport (iirc) in medieval times.